We’re at the halfway point of Glastonbury Festival 2022, but Yungblud’s time here has just begun – arriving late yesterday to catch a snapshot of Billie Eilish’s headline set, as well as a dash of the rave-tastic set from Primal Scream in the John Peel tent.
Tonight he’ll take to that very stage for his set sub-headlining before indie rascal Jamie T, in what’s set to be a raucous evening away from the hubbub of Paul McCartney‘s mega Pyramid crowd. Before then, we caught up with the Doncaster rocker to discuss a burgeoning friend ship with Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, and why rock music is in a fantastic place right now.
NME: Welcome to Glastonbury, Yungblud! What do you make of your first trip here?
Yungblud: “It’s like I walked into another world and into a trip. There are so many places to go, and you can just walk around and land on something random and be there for half an hour, and forget what time and life you’re in.
“This feels really familiar to us: if you come to a Yungblud show there’s a very similar vibe – lots of colour and expression, lots of ‘what did you come as?!’ You just end up having a conversation with people dressed up as a weird goblin fairy. Like, 10 minutes ago I just saw four people, stark bollock naked jumping on a trampoline. Only at Glastonbury.”
Last week you filmed a music video in London for ‘Don’t Feel Like Being Sad’ and the police got called… what happened there?
“To be honest, I keep forgetting that we’re a bit bigger than we used to be. I had an idea to put a song out a week ago, and was thinking what we could do for a video that is quick and mental and represents the happiness I wanted to get through in the video. I wrote the song in a time of life where I wanted to be happy: plain and simple.
“My manager looked at me and said: ‘What can you do that a lot of others can’t?’ And that’s to gather a mass of people and have a mental parade, totally illegally. We got three takes before we got moved on, but the video is beautiful.”
Is that your first run-in with the law?
“Not really, but the sergeant comes over and he’s like, ‘Oh, Yungblud’s in town again is he?’ The police are all grumpy and like: ‘You’ve got three takes or 10 minutes’. Which is plenty for me.”
You recently met up with Mick Jagger backstage at The Rolling Stones’ gig at Anfield. How did that come about?
“He talks about me in the press and he’s a fan. I was going to play in Dublin and then go over to Donny to see me mam, and I had to pass Liverpool anyway where they were playing so I asked someone on my team to reach out and they got me in and it was amazing.
“He was proper how you want Jagger to be: ‘Woah, cool man, yeah’. Giving it the proper neck vibes. I’m doing a bit of a Jagger impression all the time, I suppose. He said that his son Lucas turned him onto my music a couple years ago and he just loved the energy. If you break down rock’n’roll man in its various forms, that’s what it all comes down to – energy and truth in different end of the spectrums.”
It’s a gatekeeping thing too, if Mick co-signs younger artists instead of resisting, that’s a great thing…
“The cool thing about rock music is that it’s creating division and conversation, but because it’s been safe and not talked about for such a long time and I think that’s really cool.”
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